Caught drinking and driving? Say cheese

Traffic cops will click your photo and preserve it for their records to create a database of repeat and first-time offenders

If you are drinking and driving, then make sure you look presentable because you will be photographed if caught, and the documentation will go down in the records of the traffic police so they can spot you the next time, if and when it happens.

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The Mumbai Traffic Police have advanced a proposal to begin clicking photos of those who test positive during the breathalyzer test. The initiative would help cops create a database of first-time and repeat offenders, and aid them in dealing with the offenders accordingly.

This is important to decide the penalty, because in 2010, the government had increased the jail term for repeat offenders from six months to two years and hiked the fine from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Brijesh Singh said, "This is being done so there would be some records with us of those caught driving under the influence of alcohol." Until now, the traffic police used to struggle while identifying repeat offenders even after they were caught.

Hi-tech deviceFor that very purpose, cops have conceived a device that would be a breath analyser and a camera with a GPS system, all rolled into one. This would allow traffic cops on the road to relay the exact location of the offender, who is caught driving after drinking to the control room, where it will be displayed and recorded. But officials said they sense another round of paperwork as the idea of clicking photos of offenders and their driving licences would only stack the number of files. "So we will be doing this selectively, if we find that the person might create a problem," said a senior traffic official.